Halfords - AAAAGGGHHHH!

Broonster

shy.girl_d wrote:

Does anyone know what happens if I don't pick up a bike I have reserved at Halfords.
I have reserved to pick up tomorrow (built by them), they say they keep it until Tuesday night. Payment is on collection. After reading comments on here and elsewhere I have changed my mind about this bike. What happens if I just don't turn up? They don't have my card details or anything so they can't bill me....but, will they pester me or will they just send it back to warehouse and leave it at that?

If it's payment on collection, then just tell them you've changed your mind. The bike should just go back into stock. Personally, I would give them a ring to tell them though, rather than just not going in to collect it.

*AL*

Oxygen Thief wrote:

Oh they're ******* retarded allright. I was waiting for a good 20minutes while he was showing some couple and their little annoying kid aroudn some little bikes, prob retailing for about £70. But the kid had to drive from one bike to the next to try it out in his little shitty toy car that he'd brought in with him (parents wee-wee me off aye, they're taking him to buy a bike, leave the ******* toy in the car!) and on route jump in the tents. There's a fair few ni the queue by now and this guy is persistent on getting this sale worth not what he'd be getting out of the people in the queue! I know their customer's and equal, but at the end of the day they're not really. Plus, they left without buying anything. Ratarded!

1st come, 1st served, it's the British way

What do you expect a store to do, line you up in order of total possible spend ?

bails87

shy.girl_d
Don't let this put you off.

I bought a bike from halfords, it was fine. A problem appeared with the brakes (not their fault, and not apparent when it was new) and they replaced them with a brand new set.

They're not all bad.

Bar Shaker

I have had nothing but excellent service from my local Halfords. Its all down to who you have in your local store.

I do avoid going there Saturday morning if I want to speak to them about something but that's just common sense.

hounslow

submityournentries wrote:

it should be, but stock file alterations are rare (normally happen once a year)

probably why the stock file is out, we adjust ours whenever we see an error.

ryan93

Had a similar problem last week when I was looking for some inner chainring bolts. I looked at the shelves where all their bits and bobs where and couldn't find any so I asked the guy behind the desk if he had any, thinking he might have a rummage in the parts box in the workshop like the other guy would. But no. He SAUNTERED over to the stand where I'd just looked, which is NEXT to the desk, and said "Nope, sorry."

Now either
A) he though I was a R'TARD and totally incapable of looking for myself
or more likely
he couldn't be ***** using some initiative and looking in the workshop for some.

Why are weekend staff so incompotent!! Saying that I do have an application form that's been sitting in my room for most of the summer with the intention of sending it off to get myself a weekend job in Halfords, although maybe I should look elsewhere and save myself from the numerous posts on here all complaining about their customer services.

submityournentries

see you could do that, or you could work there and try to make the store just a little bit less poo be one of the good staff. thats what im doing now

ryan93

Yeah I thought about that. Be the employee who brings change to Halfords Cubernauld, sort of like Obama did to America.

Anyways, I'm still unsure on the application form question, "We believe in recruting the right people with the right atitude. Describe a problem you had to manage; what happened and what was the outcome?"

Now, being 17 and having just returned to do my last year at high school, I haven't had any experience of managing problems, other than stopping myself giving ths guy, who was maybe early twenties, a lecture on proper customer service skills and how he clearly does not comply with the "We believe in recruiting people with the right atitude" ethos, as stated in the above application question.

Would it be adventitious if I had someone on the inside,( ie, yourself =P ) to pull a few strings and get me a job pronto?

Future Halfords employee hopeful,
Ryan

MountainMonster

Welcome to any large retail place. Remember even though we may be serious mountain bikers, at the end of the day we are customers. While we bitch about their customer service, there are 100x more than each of us who praise their service.

It's retail, not everyone can drop what they are do to serve your every whim. While yes it may have been a 1k whim for you, they don't know that, and most likely they don't care. People have certain jobs they have to do, and may not have the time to come serve you.

I don't think it's fair for you to act as if the family with the kid should have had their salesmen that was explaining things to them walk off just because he saw you looking at a more expensive bike, so why do ou expect it.

That's the problem with people these days, society has moved into a "i want what i want and I want it now" noone has patience anymore. I hate to see posts like this.

bails87

I was in Halfords once, talking to the salesman, just about to buy a bike, when all of a sudden he ignored me and wandered off to speak to someone else, just because they were looking at something more expensive......

You're right, doesn't sound so reasonable from the other side

ryan93

I understand where you are coming from Monster, but would it not have been better if the salesman/shop assistant would have at least acknowledge him and others waiting in a queue by at saying "I'll be with you in a minute." or something along those lines as opposed to totally ignoring them?

Just my opinion

submityournentries

depends on the time, if we are deep in conversation it seems rude (just to me admittedly) i wont say sorry guys ill be with you in a second. however if they seem abit sort of stuck i say ill tell you what, ill let you think about it, if you need any more help just grab me and then go and help the next person. also if im doing a puncture ill normally just pop my head over the desk and say sorry, ill be with you in 2 secs. just depends on the task.

and RYAN as for the challenge, they just want you to show initative and problem solving, so just think of something u had to do that meant you had to sort stuff out for yerself

ryan93

Thanks for that Robert. Suppose it shouldn't be too hard, probably be something relating to school and how the head teacher and co. have made a spectacular fail of my timetable for this year.

Whats the wages like for a 17 y/o in Halfords anyway? Minimum wage of £5.47/hr or something like that?

submityournentries

yeah its only minimum, but thats all youll get at 17 unfortunately. now ive managed to hit the big 19 theyll upgrade you to 5.85 score haha. and yeah, thatd do, cause it just shows you used initative to sort out the problem. try not to sound tooo negative about the school though, as itll sound like you have many gripes about the place that your working at, and the people reading the application form will maybe think youll cause them more problems.
what store are you applying too?

Bar Shaker

rowlers wrote:

Reserved a Carbon Tean road bike this morning.
Tried to phone to make sure they had it ready to collect, but couldn't get through.
Drives the 40 mile to the store only to be told they couldn't sell me it because it had no back wheel!
I'm now out of pocket becase halfords are a complete bunch of incompetant t0$$ers!
FFS!
if your reading this Mr Boardman, please find another outlet for your bikes, halfords are a joke!!!

The whole thing about this is that the Reserve and Collect process mails you when the bike is ready for collection. If you don't get a mail telling you its ready, setting off for a 40 mile drive isn't wise. Any shop, Halfords, Evans or any LBS could have found something they weren't happy with when they were setting up the bike for collection.

Getting it home and finding the back wheel was buckled would have been an Aaargh moment. This isn't.

BenS999

Just sold my Boardman Pro hardtail to a mate, and removing the Shimano M520 pedals the bike came with was the hardest thing ever!
They were certainly over tightened (obviously the mechanic never heard that a nip is enough for a pedal!), and possibley not greased either. I managed one side on my own with all the brute force i could muster, and plenty of penetrating oil seeping in overnight, the second pedal i had to get the LBS to do. they had to heat up the spindle with a blow torch, and add a piece of pipe to the pedal wrench for leverage, and get a guy to stand on the other pedal (now flat - and only nipped with plenty of grease!).

Ive had two Boardmans MTB's (2008 Comp and 2009 Pro) and can't fault them, apart from the shoddy service i have experienced / build at Halfords. They cant all be like this im sure. Dont le this scare you off buying a great product, just make sure to check everything over or have a LBS / friend do it for you.

bails87

So how long had you owned the bike? And you'd never taken the pedals off or greased the threads?

Pedals get tighter just from the action of pedalling.

chedabob

BenS999 wrote:

Just sold my Boardman Pro hardtail to a mate, and removing the Shimano M520 pedals the bike came with was the hardest thing ever!
They were certainly over tightened (obviously the mechanic never heard that a nip is enough for a pedal!), and possibley not greased either. I managed one side on my own with all the brute force i could muster, and plenty of penetrating oil seeping in overnight, the second pedal i had to get the LBS to do. they had to heat up the spindle with a blow torch, and add a piece of pipe to the pedal wrench for leverage, and get a guy to stand on the other pedal (now flat - and only nipped with plenty of grease!).

Ive had two Boardmans MTB's (2008 Comp and 2009 Pro) and can't fault them, apart from the shoddy service i have experienced / build at Halfords. They cant all be like this im sure. Dont le this scare you off buying a great product, just make sure to check everything over or have a LBS / friend do it for you.

It took me stood on the pedal and my dad whacking a 15mm wrench with a hammer to get the crankbolts off.

ryan93

I've wrote about covering my mate on his paper round while doing my own. Think that should show that I care about customer service and stuff like that. The store is the newish one at Cumbernauld and it's only about 10-15mins away on ma bike so I wouldn't need to pay for bus tickets or anythin like that, unless it rains, which it often does in scotland =P

Anyways, I'll take it up to the store at the weekend and hopefully hear back from them soonish.

craig_jackass

i had to buy from halfords as i wanted a voodoo bike, ordered it on the 15th august at 11.45pm, it said i would get a text or call when it was ready...16th august came 12.30pm phone call ''hi its halfords thats your bike ready''. went to pick it up, the guy went over everything let me test it outside re checked the gearing as i wasnt to happy with it now all sorted! hit the trails this morrning, bikes awesome, no issues at all. i'd like to say thanks to the guy in halfords Stirling Scotland... ace job mate, u did no a thing or two about MTB's

snotty badger

TBH I wasn't impressed with the set up of the girlfriends brothers Carrera. Front hose was flapping about, cable ties left uncut, rear mech poorly set and headset loose. Real half arsed job- that was Workingtons branch.